Introducing the IceBlock putter, a stand-alone club

The Ice Block putter stands by itself in order for the player to get the best alignment possible before putting.

Sean Zak

Often at the PGA Show – among the thousands of products that can make the event quite dizzying – products must stand out visually to grab your eye. One new product stands out on its own, literally. It is the IceBlock Putter.

The name makes sense, as the putter head is oblong and transparent, like a block of ice. In this scenario, however, your block of ice holds up a putter shaft on its own. It's eye catching.

The novel concept of a “stand alone” putter came to creator Daniel F. à Wengen (a Swiss surgeon who owns a slew of patents, 23 in all from hearing aids to nose implants) as he wanted to improve how players stroke their putts. His theory is that too many players strike with an open face at impact, so he placed multiple alignment marks atop the putter to help reel in attention to face angle.

The block holds the shaft upright, allowing the player to back away on the green and read their putt with the putter in clear view. From that, Wengen believes he has solved an address issue, relative to the specific read of the green.

“You put it on the putting green, you leave it there, you take a step back, you look through [the putter head],” Wengen says. “You adjust the face angle until it is perfectly right where you want the ball to go.”

Then, of course, you make the putt. One glaring fault is that the putter stands on its own mainly on flat green locations, but not where there is significant undulation. Good news, though! The putter has already been ruled to conform by the R&A.

All that remains is making the stroke, which requires little effort (the head is nearly 500 grams). The putter is available at IceBlockPutter.com, but will hit you with a driver-esque price of $249.99.